All Souls Day

October 31, 2025November 1, 2025 selvam Uncategorized, Year C

Theme: “The Souls of the Just are in the Hands of God”

Today we remember with affection and prayer those who have gone before us. It is a day when grief and faith meet, when silence and hope hold hands. The Scripture readings (with options) remind us that death is not the end, but a passage. The first reading from the Book of Wisdom says: “The souls of the just are in the hands of God, and no torment shall touch them.”

This conviction did not come easily in Israel’s history. Earlier generations thought that the dead simply went down to Sheol, a shadowy place of silence – in Greek, was referred as Hades. But in the later books, especially Wisdom and Maccabees, there was a breakthrough of faith. People […]

Sermon for 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C Homily

October 13, 2025October 18, 2025 selvam Year C

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
(Lk 18:1-8)
‘… a parable about the need to pray continually…’ (Lk 18:1)
Emergency numbers and frequently dialled numbers
Wherever in the world you are, today, you can have access to emergency services just by ‘dialling’ a few numbers on your telephone. Do you know the emergency number(s) in your own country? In the UK, it is 999; in the European Union it is 112, and in some countries it is 911. In some other countries there are separate numbers to call the police, fire services, or medical assistance. I recently read in the internet that the first emergency number system to be deployed, anywhere in the world, was in London. It was on 30 June 1937 that ‘999’ was first dialled and a special red light flashed on […]

Sermon for 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C Homily

October 10, 2025October 10, 2025 selvam Year C

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
He threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked him (Lk 17:11-19)

During the Ordinary Time of the year, for Sunday liturgy we normally listen to a particular Gospel. This year we are listening to the Gospel of Luke. The first reading is selected from the Old Testament in such a way as to correspond to the gospel text, while the 2nd reading from the Epistles follows its own sequence. Today, the first reading and the gospel text have extraordinary similarities. Both are stories about lepers being healed; in both stories there are expressions of gratitude; and both are about outsiders!
Let us begin by looking at some of the interesting details in the gospel text of today so as to appreciate the context of the story, and then we can reflect a […]

Sermon for 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C Homily

October 3, 2025October 3, 2025 selvam Year C

27th Sunday of Ordinary Time (C)
“We have done no more than our duty” (Lk 17:5-10)
The Spirituality of Daily life
In the late 1990’s, CNN, the American news channel, ran an ad in the print media that made a deep impression on me: not necessarily to watch CNN – which, of course, I do sometimes, but about the spirituality of daily life. The two page ad had this large truck in the foreground which was on fire. At one of the corners of the photograph there was this elderly person who was throwing a bucket of water on the blazing truck in an attempt to put off the fire. And the caption read: “History is not made by kings and presidents; but by ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”
The Liturgy of the Word on this 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time invites us to reflect on the sacredness […]

Sermon for 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C Homily

September 27, 2025September 27, 2025 selvam Year C

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Why Be Kind?
(Luke 16:19-31: the parable of Lazarus and the rich man)
It is quite common in parts of East Africa for employees to be absent from work for the purposes of attending funerals. While in westernized African cities like Nairobi most funerals are scheduled on Saturdays, in smaller towns this is not possible for want of good mortuaries. But why a high rate of absenteeism from work due to funerals? For one thing, funerals are communal events and hence people would go for funerals of even mutual friends. However, once I asked one of our staff who was going to the third funeral in one month during her working hours: “Why do you have to go for almost every funeral in town?” Her answer was quite straightforward: “If I do not go for the funeral […]